


Purple Rose

by RowanAD



Series: Classics Rewritten [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Classics, F/F, Non-Sexual Slavery, Rapunzel Elements, Rewrite, Slavery, Twelfth Night - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25502302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RowanAD/pseuds/RowanAD
Summary: Elizabeth Kane was the girl in the tower. How do things change when her new maidservant Violet introduces her to the ways of the world? The world is cold and conniving, but the two find warmth in each other and in the family that they piece back together along the way.
Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Female Character(s) of Color
Series: Classics Rewritten [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692691
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Violet didn’t have a last name. Her last name was her master’s, her _first name_ was her master’s, she was her master’s property. She and her brother Robin had just been purchased by a woman she’d seen in the marketplace many times. Her name was Lady Kane. She was about five and a half feet tall and of a very ill temperament, with a sour face and cruel eyes, framed by crow’s feet. She was beautiful, there was no mistaking it, but her beauty hid cold. She yanked at Violet’s chains and made the girl stumble, and every time Robin protested, she raised a hand to strike his sister across the cheek. They were loaded into a cart and taken deep into the woods, to a probably once beautiful but now decrepit estate. There were other slaves milling about and Robin was thrust to join them upon their arrival, separated from Violet, who was taken inside and walked up an inordinate amount of stairs to the topmost room in the whole keep.

“This is your place now.” She was told. “You are to wait on the young mistress within these walls and tend to her every need.”

“Yes m’lady.”

The woman raised her hand once more simply for the pleasure of delighting in the girl’s flinch before unlocking the door and thrusting Violet inside, bolting the door behind her. Violet kept her head down as she curtsied to the young mistress.

“Hello, what’s your name?” The young mistress asked.

Violet glanced up at her with the utmost confusion. The girl was about her age, (though Violet didn’t know how old she was, they just looked to have shared a similar amount of years on the earth). She had creamy pale skin and wavy locks of golden hair. Her eyes were sapphire blue, deep and surprisingly kind for being of the same household as the elder mistress. 

“What?” She asked softly, tensing as if fearing to be hit for asking.

“What’s your name?” The young mistress asked again. “Mine is Elizabeth.”

“Why do you need to know, m’lady?” Violet asked tentatively.

“If you’re going to be my friend, I need to know!” Elizabeth replied brightly.

“I was assigned as your handmaiden, m’lady. I am not of your class. I am but a humble slave to wait upon you.” She cast her eyes to the floor in front of Elizabeth’s feet.

Elizabeth stepped forward and gently tilted Violet’s head up so their gazes would meet.

“I am not worthy to look in your eyes, kind lady.” Violet whispered.

“Why? You’re extraordinary. All I see, every day, is people like me. Pale skin, dreary eyes, hair like straw. You… You’re beautiful. Skin like mahogany, hair like coal, eyes like coffee.. It’s like magic...”

“Magic? You’re too kind, m’lady, there are plenty of people like me, and we are all the same.”

“Well, they say the more you see of something the less value it has. I see people like me all the time, so their looks have become meaningless. You see people like you all the time and feel much the same. Am I just the same as everyone like me?”

“No!” Violet assured her quickly. “You are far more kind and beautiful and gracious than anyone else. There is no one else like you.”

“Exactly. Everyone is unique. There is no one like you, either.”

Violet was taken aback at this. She didn’t quite know what to say, so she opted to say nothing. Elizabeth tapped Violet’s chin gently with her hand.

“There. Now, what’s your name? You and I are going to be friends.”

Violet was still in shock, but quietly said, “Violet.”

“Violet.” Elizabeth repeated. “It’s a great name.”

“Thank you, m’lady.” Violet said slowly, “You’re too kind.”

“You don’t need to call me ‘m’lady’, Vi. Just call me Lizzie! We’re friends now.” Elizabeth walked over to a plush chaise and Violet’s body ached just _looking_ at how comfortable it was. Elizabeth inclined her head and called Violet over. “Well, aren’t you going to sit down, Vi?”

“Vi…” The dark toned girl echoed softly. That was going to take some getting used to. No one called her Vi anymore. Robin called her “Via”, but never Vi. No one had called her Vi since… well, since she lost her parents.

“Come on, sit down!” Elizabeth urged, snapping Violet out of her thoughts and wonderment.

Violet edged over and knelt at Elizabeth’s feet, sitting back on her legs. Now it was Elizabeth who donned the look of confusion.

“Aren’t you going to sit up here with me?”

Violet cocked her head, puzzled, letting her gaze rest on Elizabeth’s lips, too used to looking _at_ her master, but never sharing their gaze.

“I am not allowed to, young mistress. I would dirty it.”

“Nonsense. Come sit with me.”

“My lady-”

“That’s an order.” Elizabeth said.

Violet’s eyes shot up, brown orbs locking into Elizabeth’s cerulean ones. She slowly rose to her feet and sat beside Elizabeth, trying not to sigh with the sheer pleasure of the soft velvet and padded cushions. Elizabeth noticed the change in Violet’s body language as she sat down.

“It’s comfy, right?” She said, not quite questioningly, but it sounded like she was trying something.

“Yes, m’lady.”

“What color is yours?” She asked, continuing to probe.

“My…” Violet’s brows furrowed. “What, m’lady?”

“Your chaise.”

“I don’t have one, m’lady.” 

“Surely your mother has one?”

“No, m’lady.” Violet replied softly.

There was a distinct look in her eyes. There was something not quite bitter, but intensely sorrowful in them. Elizabeth stopped.

“I’m sorry.” She said gently.

“You’ve done no wrong, my lady.” Violet assured.

Lizzie was not so sure about that, but she continued anyway. She knew she was in a dangerous and possibly even uncharted territory, but she slipped her hand into Violet’s, startling the other girl with her kindness. Violet’s hand was rough and calloused, with small scars on her fingers. Elizabeth cocked her head to get a better look at them and Violet pulled her hand away timidly.

“What happened to your hand?” Elizabeth asked softly.

“I used to work in the fields..” Violet admitted. “I picked cotton on the southern shores of the new world.”

“Why did you come back?”

Violet looked away, gaze falling through the open window on the sun setting in the distance. It had taken all day from the early morning to get from the market to the manor, and now dark was falling. She wondered fleetingly where Robin would sleep. The nights were cold in this part of the country, and if he perished with the nightly frost, then she would be truly alone.

“You know nothing of the world outside this house.” Violet said, not accusingly or with any heat. Her voice was even, lost and dreamlike, at that.

“I know nothing of the world outside this _room_ actually.”

Violet looked back at her.

“You… you’ve never left this room?”

Elizabeth shook her head. Violet looked at her with some consideration.

“You are just as much a prisoner as I am…” She whispered unthinkingly.

“Prisoner? To whom are you a prisoner, Violet?”

Violet hesitated.

“Ma’am, what do you know of slavery?”

“Nothing,” Elizabeth replied. “Can you explain it to me?”

Violet took a deep breath.

“Slavery is a white man’s practice of reducing people like me to property and selling us like livestock. We are forced to work with no wages and our lives are not our own.”

Elizabeth’s jaw dropped.

“But that’s horrible!”

“You are one of few who see it that way.” Violet sighed.

Elizabeth lifted her hand and was making her way up to cup Violet’s cheek when the darker girl flinched.

“Violet…” Lizzie whispered.

“I am sorry, my lady. I am meant to take the blow.” 

She got off the chaise and knelt before Elizabeth. Elizabeth got down and knelt beside her, taking Violet into her arms. Violet tensed, but it had been so long since she and Robin had scarcely had the time for such a thing as a hug, saddening as that was. The last embrace they’d shared was before they left to be brought to auction a fortnight ago when they’d prayed together to be sold to the same master. They were lucky then, and Violet could not believe her good fortune now. The young mistress of the house called her by name. She invited her to sit on the good furniture. She did not strike. She knelt on the ground with her.

“Thank you…” She whispered brokenly, leaning into the solid embrace. “Thank you, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth smiled.

“I told you, Violet. You’re my friend.” She opened her mouth to say something else when her ever acute ears heard footsteps coming up the stairs. “Oh, mother’s coming!” Lizze said brightly. “Come Violet, come meet my mother!”

Elizabeth stood up and helped Violet to her feet. Violet stood beside her, tense and shaking at the thought of the mistress of the house catching her consorting above her station, with the young mistress no less. The lock clicked and the door opened.

“Ah, Eliza darling.” Lady Kane said, voice carrying an authority, but laced in faux warmth. Elizabeth did not seem to notice the falseness of tone like Violet did.

“Hello mother!” Elizabeth replied happily.

Lady Kane narrowed her eyes at Violet.

“You.” She said, even the fake warmth from her voice gone, “Down to the kitchen. You’ll fetch my daughter dinner.”

“Yes, mistress.” Violet curtsied deeply and left the room.

She hurried down to the kitchen, down all the tower stairs and into the cellar, bringing up a fresh bowl of stew and some sugar and fruit. Violet’s stomach hurt just looking at it, but she was given a hard roll and the bottom half an apple for herself, told the fruit was from Robin, which made her smile as she pocketed the seeds in her apron and bit into the fruit, savoring it before pocketing the rest and the roll and hurrying back to the tower before the young mistress’s dinner could go cold. She set the meal in front of Elizabeth and curtsied again to Lady Kane before the mistress, satisfied, left the room and locked it again.

Elizabeth began to fill her belly with the warm meal, smiling at Violet, only to stop when she saw what little Violet had for her own dinner.

“Violet? Where is your dinner? Surely that is not all you have to eat.”

Violet gave her a small sad smile.

“This is more supper than I would have ordinarily, m- Elizabeth.” Violet explained. “My brother has slipped me the most wonderful gift.” She pulled the apple half from her pocket and showed it to Elizabeth.

“Half an apple? How do you live that half an apple is so wonderful?”

Violet turned away, pocketing her apple again shyly and trying to eat her stale roll.

“I’m sorry, Vi, I didn’t mean it like that.” She apologized, “I just… this is all so new to me. Your people, how you live, it’s all so strange to me. Why anyone would treat you the way they do is impossible to understand.”

Violet said nothing.

“Vi?”

Violet’s voice was quiet and her following words came out sounding almost akin to a proverb.

“The most important concepts to grasp will be the difficult ones. It’s how we choose to learn them that matters, or if we choose to learn them at all. You could’ve chosen to remain ignorant. You could’ve seen how your mother treated me and decided to follow her example. Learning is a journey, worry about the way.”

“Where did you read that?”

“I can’t read.” Violet responded promptly, confused.

“But that was so eloquent.”

“My mother used to say it to me.”

Elizabeth nodded, giving pause to the comment and continuing to eat, albeit slowly. They made small talk until Elizabeth’s mother returned and pulled Violet and the tray of finished food out of the room. The food was sent down to the kitchen with another servant and Violet was escorted to a tall, thin, and rather shallow closet and locked inside, the space to serve as her “room” for the foreseeable future.


	2. Chapter 2

About three fortnights passed and every day, in the early morning, Violet was woken up roughly by banging on her door and brought out and up the stairs to Elizabeth’s room, where they spent their days together. Elizabeth had many questions about the outside world and what life was like for Violet and so many like her, though Violet spared her the gruesome details of her harder masters. Or of the cruelty of Lady Kane.

“What was it like overseas?”

Elizabeth never seemed to tire of asking about Violet’s travels, and Violet was happy to oblige, though she would never tell Elizabeth of the months she spent chained down and crammed between boards during the long voyage, barely able to breathe over the stink of sweat and the occasional smell of the rot of those less fortunate souls who would be dead on arrival.

“The Indies were very warm and all the people there were dark. Not dark like me, but not light like you. The masters called them Indians. They spoke another language, though I could not tell you what it was, nor could I ever try to replicate their sounds.” Violet said, weaving the reccountment like a fairy tale. Her friend was innocent to the ways of the world, and the longer she could spare that purity from the taint of society, the better. “The new world was much like England, but there were the dark-light Indians there too. We all worked the fields, picking cotton and tobacco. I came back to England when my master sent the mistress and children back here. Robin and I were the children’s personal attendants, so naturally we came along. The children were sent to boarding school two years later and we were sold again.”

“Was…” Elizabeth questioned slowly, “Was being sold often a… regular occurrence?”

Violet nodded.

“How many times…?”

“I lost count.. But I know Mama and Papa were sold away when I was twenty two kilos and a hundred and twenty four centimeters.”

“How old were you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how old I am now.”

“You don’t know how old you are?”

Violet shook her head.

“Mama used to know, but it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen Mama. I’m fifty kilos now, and a hundred and sixty centimeters.”

Elizabeth nodded solemnly to show she was taking in the information, but was silent in shock. When she finally had her bearings again, she looked at Violet, who was wringing her hands and very gently asked a question that had been burning at her.

“Violet?”

“Yes?”

“What was your mother like?”

Violet stopped moving.

“She was…” She trailed off a little, trying to find the right word. “Warm. She was usually a kitchen worker, so she was always warm and smelled like food. Sometimes it was enough to trick our bellies into thinking they were full just from the scent. She used to braid my hair for me and tuck it up so it wouldn’t be in the way when I worked, you know, snagged on the crops or anything.”

“Do you know how to do that?” Elizabeth asked.

“Not on myself. But I have done it many times on my brother Robin.”

“Would you do it to me?”

Violet looked at her in surprise, but slowly nodded, crossing the room to the vanity and pulling out several ribbons, beginning to braid Lizzie’s hair with deft fingers, moving quickly and delicately, softly tugging strands into place and weaving them together. She tied them off with a final ribbon and let Elizabeth go look in the mirror.

“Oh Violet, it’s lovely!”

Violet smiled shyly.

“It has been a long time since I’ve had the chance. Our last master cut Robin’s hair, so I’m afraid I’m a bit out of practice.”

“No, no, it’s beautiful! Thank you!”

Violet nodded, graciously accepting the compliment.

“I want to show my mother.” Elizabeth said, walking to the wall and ringing the bell for her mother, which led Lady Kane to open the door and when she saw Elizabeth, she cried out in outrage.

“Elizabeth Jane, what has that heathen done to your hair?!”

Elizabeth’s face contorted in a look of confusion and hurt.

“What do you mean, mother? It’s lovely, Violet did a wonderful job-”

“ _ Violet _ ? You address that  _ thing _ by its  _ name _ ?”

“She’s a person, mother!”

“She’s a slave!”

“She’s my friend!”

All went quiet. Violet dropped to her knees, hanging herself low at the feet of the mistress, crying softly.

“Please mistress.. She knows not, mistress..  _ Mercy _ , mistress…”

Lady Kane kicked Violet in the chest, her sharp toed shoe pressing into the poor girl’s skin. Violet coughed with the swift pain, then returned to pressing her face to the ground.

“You can’t treat her like that!” Elizabeth shouted.

“Watch me!” Her mother snapped, leaning down and seizing Violet by the hair, eliciting a sharp cry of pain.

“Mother, stop!” Elizabeth backed towards the window.

“Eliza, what are you doing?” Her mother asked darkly.

“If you don’t let her go, I’ll pitch myself out the window.”

“Eliza!” Her mother dropped Violet at once.

“I want to leave.” Elizabeth demanded.

“What?” 

“You need to apologise to Violet and I want permission to leave the room.”

“No!”

Elizabeth took another step towards the window.

“No, Elizabeth, wait!”

“Apologise. And I want the keys.” Elizabeth repeated sternly.

“I’m…” She looked down at Violet, then up at her daughter. “I’m  _ sorry _ ,” she forced out.

“Now the keys. Give them to Violet.” Elizabeth ordered.

Reluctantly, Lady Kane dropped the keyring in front of Violet.

“Violet, come here,” Elizabeth said gently, holding out a hand for her friend to take.

Violet scooped up the keys and staggered to her feet, gingerly making her way over to Elizabeth, handing her the ring of jingling metal. Elizabeth smiled at her gently and stepped in front of her protectively.

“You can go now, mother. Violet will remain with me.”

Lady Kane looked disgusted, but she left, storming down the stairs. Violet sagged to the floor, all strength in her legs giving out and her arms devoting themselves to keeping her head from bashing into the floor.

“Violet!” Elizabeth dropped the keys and knelt beside her friend. “What happened, are you alright?”

Violet’s body was wracked with sobs as the petite girl wrapped her arms around her chest and cried.

“Violet? Violet!”

“You don’t understand!” Violet screamed. “You don’t understand! You know nothing! Don’t you see how much worse everything has just become?”

“But Violet, we can leave now-”

“She will beat him! You do not understand! You should have let her take me! She needs me to be your maiden, but Robin…” Her voice cracked. “My sweet Robin, she does not need. She has fifty men far stronger who can do his labors in half the time. She will beat him, be it with the switch or the lash, or perhaps if he is lucky, he will only be sold, but you don’t understand what she’ll do…”

Elizabeth’s breath caught in her chest.

“Vi… I’m so sorry… I didn’t-”

Violet’s breath was shaky.

“You are blind.” She said, before pulling herself up off the floor and running out in search of her brother before it was too late.

She raced down the stairs, her bare feet slapping against the stone, flying through the courtyard with the sound of her name on someone’s lips ignored as she bolted for the servants’ quarters, banging desperately on the door, and when it opened, she hurried in, asking- nay,  _ begging _ , “Robin, where’s Robin? Robin?” She spotted him and ran to him, falling into his arms. “Robin!”

“Easy, Via, easy.”

“You have to run. You have to go, promise me.”

“Via, what’s happened?”

“Elizabeth saved me from Lady Kane, but the mistress is wroth, and she will come for you.”

“Violet, she doesn’t know that we are blood.”

“I do not trust in that faith, Robin. Promise me you will go.”

“Violet-”

“Promise me,  _ please _ ..”

Robin looked into his sister’s pleading brown eyes and relented.

“I will go. But only for a fortnight.”

“A fortnight will suffice.” Violet nodded. “Hurry. Please.”

He sighed and kissed her forehead.

“Hurry back to your cupboard. If I’m going to run, I want to be well and sure you’re safe first.”

She nodded and hurried back to the main part of the manor, hiding away in her cupboard until morning, when she returned to Elizabeth’s room.


	3. Chapter 3

The door was unlocked, and she entered without Lady Kane’s escort. She saw Elizabeth asleep on the chaise, facing the door. Had she waited all night for Violet to return..?

Violet came into the room fully and took in the sight of the girl before her. Elizabeth was draped over the chaise, head lolled peacefully to the side, resting on her pale arms, her dress shedded on the floor and her undergarments showing the delicate curves of her body. Violet’s face flushed. She came over and gently shook Elizabeth by the shoulder in an attempt to wake her.

“El-lizabeth?” She stammered. “L-Lizzie, you need to wake up..”

Elizabeth groaned and shifted, eyes fluttering open to look up at Violet.

“You came back...” She whispered.

“Of course I did.” Violet replied. She did not say why. She did not say where this loyalty came from, or why she would move heaven and earth without prompting for Elizabeth Kane, but she would.

Elizabeth sat up, smiling softly at Violet for the briefest of moments before Violet spoke.

“Shall I help you into your garments, Lizzie?”

Elizabeth looked down at herself before sheepishly nodding.

“I ripped my dress last night..” She said softly.

Violet smiled at her gently.

“You have many more, and I can repair it today.”

“Why?” Elizabeth asked, searching Violet’s features for the answer.

“Why?” Violet echoed.

“Yes.” Lizzie pressed. “My actions last night put your family in danger. And yet you come back like I’ve done nothing.”

Violet smiled patiently, going to fetch a needle and thread from the cupboard.

“Elizabeth, I should not have been so angry with you. You are still learning what the world is like, and I have been sparing it from you. You ask me often about my life previous to becoming your handmaid, and I obscure the details of the viciousness of the world. Ask me again and today on, I shall tell you all. The world is ugly, and it’s time you know that, so that when you are grown and you take over from your mother, you may go into court and make a change.” Violet said firmly.

Elizabeth brightened.

“I like the sound of that.”

So Violet helped Elizabeth get dressed and every question the young mistress had, she answered, with brutal honesty and full conviction. It was an important day for the manor. It was the day Elizabeth Kane woke up.


	4. Chapter 4

Some time later, perhaps three days past Robin’s arrival back to the manor, Elizabeth and Violet were walking the grounds when Violet saw a face from across the courtyard that she’d thought she’d never see again. Her mother’s back was bent and weary, eyes cast to the ground as she carried a bucket of water towards the kitchen steps. Lizzie looked over at Violet when her dark companion fell silent.

“Vi?”

“Mama…” Violet whispered.

“Your mother? What about her?”

Violet raised a shaky hand and pointed to the woman crossing the yard. Elizabeth’s eyes widened in understanding and she pushed Violet forward. That was all the prompting the girl needed.

_ “Mama!” _ She screamed, racing into the atrium.

Her mother looked up and the bucket she’d been carrying fell from her hands as she fell to her knees and let her daughter fall into her arms.

“Mama… Mama...  _ Mama… _ ” Violet cried joyously, arms tight around her mother’s torso.

“Vi, my sweet girl..” Her mother soothed. “Oh my darling, my sweet darling.”

“Mama, you’re here… You’re alive…”

“Yes, baby, I’m alive.” Her mother ran her fingers through Violet’s hair gently and rocked her in her arms.

Elizabeth came over and waved gently.

“Hello ma’am,” She said kindly to Violet’s mother.

“I’m sorry, young mistress-” The woman began to apologize.

“No no, Violet is my friend, I’m glad she found you. What’s your name?”

“Lucy.” The woman replied, still caressing her daughter’s hair gently.

“It’s nice to meet you, Lucy.”

“And you, young mistress.”

“Please, call me Lizzie.”

Lucy smiled.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lizzie.” She nuzzled the top of her daughter’s head before ushering Violet to stand. “You take the young mistress and continue your walk like nothing has changed. I’ll say I tripped and had to fetch new water.” She told Violet, before kissing her head and scooping up her fallen bucket, hurrying off to the well before they could be spotted. “I love you, Vi.” She called after her before disappearing out of sight.


	5. Chapter 5

From that day on, Violet, Elizabeth, and Lucy carved time out of their days to see each other. They made the time line up with when Robin was able to slip away, and Elizabeth felt more a part of this family in the three months they spent in secret than she ever did with her mother in seventeen years. And it wasn’t hard to see how much happier Violet was with her mother in her life again.

One afternoon, shortly after their meeting with Lucy and Robin for the day, Violet walked into the study with some small midday snacks and stopped short, seeing Elizabeth, her golden hair waterfalling down her back like a thousand strands, stolen from the halos of the archangels themselves. Her blue eyes were filled with concentration, scanning the book she was reading and writing things down in her journal. She looked perfectly immersed in her own world and Violet didn’t want to shatter it. She merely walked forward and set the small tray of food on the desk beside her, reaching to pick up one of the apples for herself, only to feel Elizabeth’s hand fall on top of hers, reaching for the same fruit. Elizabeth looked up at her.

“Oh.. sorry.” She said softly, retracting her hand.

Violet was alight with feelings and thoughts. Why did she want Lizzie to hold her hand? Why did she seek the warmth of being beside her and watching the stars, laid out on the chaise? Why was her face so warm? Why-  _ Oh. _

“I-it’s quite alright…”

And it was, wasn’t it? It had to be, if she wanted more of it. It was that moment that Violet knew. There was no turning back now. But Violet was never known to be a coward, so she smiled. Elizabeth grew used to this smile, and at some point it seemed that she began to mirror it, though neither girl knew that their expressions were near identical when they shared those hearty glances. How were they to know that their eyes were both full of the same inescapable lovesickness.

It may not have been obvious to them, but it was clear to the rest of the manor. Lucy and Robin had known from the very start, long before the thought had so much as crossed the girls’ minds. But there was a problem. With how overt they were being, it did not take long for Lady Kane to see either. She knew the scarce times when the girls were apart. She came into her daughter’s room one evening, knowing it was the time of night that Violet would be fetching the girls’ dinner.

“Eliza, darling.” Her tone dripped with the falseness of her so-called ‘love’. Elizabeth had long since learned to detect when it wasn’t real.

“Yes,  _ mother _ ?” She replied with equal poorly disguised venom.

Lady Kane’s eyes twitched.

“You and that…  _ girl _ are getting awfully close.” She commented.

“Yes.” Elizabeth agreed, not giving her mother anything more than she had to.

“You might even say you cared for her.”

“I would..” Elizabeth’s tone edged from coldness into confusion.

“How much?”

“What?”

“How much would you say you cared for her?” Her mother asked.

Elizabeth’s brows knitted together in concern.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Answer the question, Eliza.”

“Why?”

“ _ Answer the question _ !”

“No!”

Her mother’s lips curled into a vicious smile, which unnerved Elizabeth to her very core. Her mother strode towards her, stroking her cheek ever so gently, making Lizzie turn away from it.

“All my life, I’ve wanted to make you perfect, Elizabeth. More perfect than your wretched parents ever could. And now? Now you’ve become tainted. You’re just as much of a low life as those scoundrels who birthed you.” She struck her daughter across the cheek, and the whole world seemed to stop spinning for Elizabeth in that moment. “I thought I raised you better, but no! You give up everything for a gold digging cow! Another woman, Eliza? Is that how far you’ve fallen? Not just a slave, it wasn’t good enough for you to hunt so far below your station, no, it had to be a  _ girl _ . And  _ that _ girl?”

Elizabeth didn’t know how to respond. The door was nudged open and Lucy and Violet carried dinner inside, stopping when they saw the mistress, with Lizzie cornered against the wall.

“Mama…” Violet said shakily, setting the supper tray on the table near the door.

Lucy wrapped an arm around her daughter’s shoulders and it was not a second later that everything in Elizabeth’s mind righted itself. She stared down her “mother”, in the eyes, stalking forward and forcing her to step back.

“You ask me if I love her,” She said. “The answer is yes. I do. I love Violet more than I love the air I breathe. But the question is, do you love me? Do you mother? Should I be calling you that? You said you wanted to make me better. Better than my parents. Who were they, mother? Because you seem to have a twisted idea of what ‘better’ is. Who were they, mother? Who were they,  _ Clara _ ?”

Silence fell over the room when the mistress’ first name came out of Lizzie’s mouth. Lucy gasped and gripped Violet closer. Lady Kane froze. One second passed, then two, then four, then ten, then- Lady Kane rushed at her daughter with the full intent to push her out the window, only for clever Elizabeth to step aside and let her fall. Lucy and Violet drew in sharp matching breaths, and when the tell-tale thud was heard and the clamouring from below began, Elizabeth looked at Violet and Lucy, and without a moment’s hesitation, fell into their waiting arms.


	6. Chapter 6

Lucy soothed her daughters, both of them. Over the course of the time they’d had together, Elizabeth had been as close to being her daughter as Violet was. Once they’d all returned to their right minds and the girls had been fed, Elizabeth, who would now inherit the manor, wrote a decree freeing all the slaves on the estate. After that, they began packing to leave, and it was then that the most important revelation of the evening came to light.

“Lizzie, what’s this?” Violet asked, holding up an ornate necklace.

“Oh, mother said it belonged to my birth mother.” Elizabeth replied.

Lucy looked over and dropped the parcel in her hands.

“She said what?”

Elizabeth looked over at Lucy from where Violet was clipping the pendant around her neck.

“It was my birth mother’s.” She repeated.

“Elizabeth, that’s the  _ royal crest _ .” Lucy explained.

“What?!”

Lucy’s mind seemed to be working a mile a minute.

“Elizabeth, how old are you?”

“Seventeen, why?”

“And when is your birthday?”

“The twelfth of march.”

“Oh god…” Lucy leaned against the wall.

“Lucy?”

“Mama?”

“Elizabeth, born March the twelfth seventeen years ago was the princess Sapphira. She was stolen from the palace on the eve of her christening, and never seen again. Elizabeth, it is said that the lost princess had taken the queen’s necklace with her. That it had been left beside her in the cradle for comfort and spirited away with the child in the night. The lost princess looked just like you. Sapphira, she was called, for her eyes, blue as the sapphire stone.”

Elizabeth touched the smooth, cool metal and rigid stones beneath her fingers.

“So you think..”

“I think that you are the princess. And I think it’s time you go home.”

Elizabeth looked between Violet and Lucy.

“Will you come with me?”

They nodded. Violet took her hand.

“I’d never dream of being anywhere but by your side.”

It was a fortnight’s ride to the palace, but they made good time. They asked for an audience with the king, and when they explained why, they were quickly granted it. They were led into the palace, Robin, Lucy, and Violet kept separate from Elizabeth. Elizabeth frowned, but accepted it. It would be a policy she would soon change. They came before the king and queen and Elizabeth curtsied, while her three companions brought themselves down to the floor.

"You claim to be our lost daughter." The king intoned, "Tell us. Why do you think this?"

"I was raised by Lady Kane. She claimed my parents abandoned me as a child. But she said that this necklace," Lizzie showed the pendant around her neck, "was my mother's."

The queen saw the necklace and gasped.

"Oh, Hector… Look!" She came off her throne and looked intently over Elizabeth before taking her into her arms with great warmth.

The king looked to Violet and her family.

"How can we ever repay you?" He asked.

Violet looked up at her mother worriedly, and Lucy spoke firmly.

"We'd like our freedom. And please, if you could find my husband. Our children miss him so."

"Consider it done. As of today, you, your children, and your husband are free citizens of the kingdom. Sapphira?" He turned to his daughter. "How can we make you feel at home?"

Elizabeth looked over at Violet.

"Well, my name has been Elizabeth for as long as I can remember, so if it pleases you, I'd like to keep it."

"Done." The king nodded. 

"Anything else?" His wife asked.

Elizabeth nodded.

"Mother, father, I wish to marry."

"To whom, child?"

Elizabeth pointed to Violet. The king and queen followed the line of her arm with their eyes.

"The boy will make a fine suitor." The king said, though his voice was a little tight.

Elizabeth didn't have time to object before she was whisked away to what would be her quarters. Many days passed and she saw neither hide nor hair of Violet. She wondered whether her father had held his bargain or not. But the day of the wedding came and after the coronation that preceded the main event, a dark skinned body came down the aisle. Dressed in an impeccable white suit was not Robin, but Violet. She smiled at Lizzie, signaling with her eyes not to rat her out. The wedding commenced shortly thereafter and after all the vows and legalities were said and done, Violet took her hair down from her hat and let it fall down her shoulders and back, pulling off her coat and letting the fabric that had been hidden beneath it fall into a dress.

The king and queen were surprised, but what could they do?

Elizabeth kissed Violet for the second and certainly not last time, and thus began their long and beautiful reign, which would bring freedom, happiness, and prosperity for many generations.


End file.
